Chiefs players catch heck

Published 4:00 am, Friday, December 6, 1996

ALAMEDA - The Raiders' defensive backs don't care about bulletin board material. At least not when it pertains to the blocking tactics of the Kansas City receivers.

Known for their cut blocks and crackbacks, the Chiefs wideouts have elicited cracks back from the Raiders' secondary. The Raiders say the Chiefs play cheap.

"When you play those guys, you know it's going to be a physical game," Raiders free safety Eddie Anderson said. "They're going to cut you, go for your knees, and they're going to set you up for the play-action passes. The thing is, you have to take them on, and not let it get to the point where you're thrown out of a game. It can come to that with those guys because they're a dirty team."

Imagine. The Raiders, a team with a long reputation for attempts to intimidate others, not to mention the most penalized group of the 1990s, calling another team dirty. Yet that's what it's come to as far as the Raiders and Chiefs are concerned.

The Chiefs have drawn criticism from others this season. Kansas City coach Marty Schottenheimer and Denver coach Mike Shanahan had a brief verbal sparring session earlier this season after Chiefs cornerback-wide receiver Dale Carter injured Broncos cornerback Lionel Washington with a cut block on Oct. 27.

In an earlier Chiefs game, against Seattle on Oct. 17, wide receiver Chris Penn cut-blocked unsuspecting Seahawks linebacker Winston Moss from behind. Moss retaliated by introducing Penn's face to the turf, and subsequently was ejected from that game.

Schottenheimer adamantly has defended his receivers' tactics as if the criticisms were an attack on his integrity. He has claimed accurately that cut blocks and crackbacks are part of football. The issue that the Raiders are concerned with isn't that. It's the intent.

"They've always been a dirty team to me," safety Darren Carrington said. "They play hard, but then they do that cheap stuff, like hitting you from behind on your knees. If a guy is standing there and you know it's illegal to hit him, and you hit a guy in the back of the legs anyway, you tell me what that says. It's one thing to try to make a play. It's another when you're endangering a guy's career."

Cornerback Albert Lewis spent 11 seasons in Kansas City and stresses that Chiefs coaches aren't encouraging questionable techniques, that certain players sometimes lose control of their ambition. Ironically, Lewis himself received an illegal block from Penn in the Raiders' 19-3 loss to Kansas City on Sept. 8.

Raiders coach Mike White also doesn't see things as his players do. Whether he doesn't want to inject more motivation into this rivalry or he's just being honest, he sides with Schottenheimer on this subject.

"I think they're just real aggressive blockers and they present a different style that some players interpret differently," White said. "I feel they're aggressive blockers who just come after you. They've been that way for a while."

It's just that consistency that annoys the Raiders' defensive backs. They also know nothing will change on Monday night (Schottenheimer said his team hasn't been scrutinized by officials since the Carter-Washington incident).

Of course, there figure to be a few flare-ups, some finger-pointing, and plenty of yellow flags. But as far as the Raiders are concerned, there's only one way to deal with the Chiefs' receivers.

"You shove them and you choke them and try to crunch their eyes out," Anderson said. "And then you hope they get tired of doing that stuff." &lt;